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The entire 27-person crew were rescued—the luxe cars were not.

ByErika Owen on March 20, 2019

When you buy a really nice new car (I’m talking a Rolls Royce or a Porsche), the first thing that pops into your head probably isn’t “Wow, I hope this car doesn’t doesn’t go down in a sunken ship situation.” But that’s exactly what happened to a container ship carrying 2,000 cars heading from Morocco to Brazil on March 12.

The cargo ship caught fire just off the coast of France and met their watery demise in the Atlantic Ocean. The entire crew of 27 was rescued and no injuries were reported, but all 2,000 cars—including nearly three dozen Porches, according to The Daily Mail—were lost. An oil spill as a result of the situation has also been addressed and is currently being cleaned up.

Four of the much-anticipated 911 GT2 RS cars was also onboard. Porsche has shared that they will increase manufacturing of that particular model to make up for the cars lost. The real pickle is, how do you possibly inform someone who has spent close to $300,000 for one of your products that it sank to the bottom of the ocean. This is how Porsche did it in a letter to customers:

FRED TANNEAU/Getty Images

“We are sorry to inform you that, due to a fire, a Grimaldi group ship, that was transporting your vehicle, sank on March 12, 2019,’ the company wrote to its customers. And for that reason, your GT2 RS can not be delivered. As you may know, Porsche ended the 911 GT2 RS production on February 2019 and under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be possible to give you another car.”

While Porsche saw a big hit from the accident, Audi also had a handful of models onboard, including the A3, A5, RS4, RS5, and Q7. Talk about tough luck. But maybe someday someone can turn the area into an underwater playground for car-enthusiasts-turned-scuba-divers.